Many people consider varicose veins to be a cosmetic problem. Spider veins or bulging veins make the legs look unsightly, but they also warn of more serious health problems. Timely detecting signs of varicose veins, carrying out treatment and preventing relapses is the main task of those who want to maintain the health and beauty of their legs as long as possible.
What are varicose veins?
Answering this question, many will say that the main sign of varicose veins is unsightly, protruding veins. This occurs due to the fact that the wall of the vein expands, stretches, and the vessel loses its tone. In fact, dilated veins are the main manifestation of varicose veins, but why does this happen?
Blood flows through the veins from bottom to top. In this case, the leg muscles play the role of a kind of pump: contracting, they "lift" blood through the veins to the heart. But if during the day you sit mainly and move little, then the muscles contract poorly and the mechanism that helps blood rise through the veins fails. The blood in the vessel stagnates, which creates the precondition for the development of varicose veins.
The second important mechanism that ensures normal blood flow through the veins of the legs is the presence of valves in the walls of the veins. Normally, they close and prevent blood from flowing from top to bottom. If the valves weaken, reflux occurs - backflow of blood. As a result, it stagnates and stretches the glass. By losing tone, the venous wall expands and the vessel can no longer perform its function 100%. This condition is called varicose veins.
Thus, varicose veins are a consequence of the weakening of the venous valves, which begin to allow blood to flow in the opposite direction, leading to its stagnation. Varicose veins most often affect the superficial veins of the legs. The affected veins are clearly visible under the skin and appear knobby and tortuous.
What factors influence the formation of varicose veins?
Risk factors influencing the development of varicose veins can be divided into several groups:
- Prolonged load on the vascular wall - it can be monotonous loading (forced sitting or standing during the day), as well as high loads associated with weight lifting (for example, among athletes).
- Hormonal imbalances that affect the state of the venous valves. That is why varicose veins often accompany pregnancy, and adolescents and young people who are actively experiencing hormonal changes are also at risk. Varicose veins also threaten women who take hormonal contraceptives.
- Inheritance. The vascular wall includes the so-called structural proteins: collagen and elastin. Its proportion ensures the elasticity of the vein. A person may have a congenital disorder in the ratio of these proteins, which leads to weakness of the venous wall. This determines the congenital predisposition to varicose veins.
Pay attention to the following points: the presence of varicose veins in close relatives, the presence or absence of hormonal fluctuations (taking contraceptives and other hormonal medications, pregnancy, lactation), sufficient level of physical activity during the day.
Why are varicose veins dangerous?
In the absence of timely diagnosis and correct treatment, varicose veins in the later stages can lead to the development of such serious complications as:
- rupture of a dilated vein followed by massive bleeding;
- phlebitis - inflammation of the vessel wall;
- thrombophlebitis - an inflammatory process of the vascular wall with the formation of a blood clot (thrombus) on its inner surface;
- thrombosis - blocking the lumen of a vein with a blood clot, which disrupts blood flow;
- thromboembolism - a condition in which a blood clot breaks away from the site of its formation and is carried with circulating blood to other structures in the body, blocking smaller vessels and causing ischemia;
- Trophic ulcers are long-term non-healing wounds on the skin of the legs, as a result of an alteration in blood circulation and tissue trophism.
Many complications are difficult to treat, significantly reduce a person's quality of life and can lead to irreversible consequences.
Varicose veins: what to look for
Thus, varicose veins are one of the most common vascular pathologies. Many of us, especially office workers, are at risk. To find out if it's time to see a phlebologist, answer a few questions:
- Do your feet swell at the end of the day? Do you feel heaviness, pain or cramps in your legs at night?
- How much time a day do you spend in the same position: sitting or standing?
- Have your family members suffered from varicose veins?
- Do spider veins and tortuous red capillaries appear on your legs?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, we advise you to visit a doctor. In a medical center specialized in the treatment of varicose veins, you can undergo an ultrasound diagnosis (lasts about 20 minutes), which will identify varicose veins, if any, or allow you to assess the risks of their development. A phlebologist will give you recommendations on prevention or effective treatment.
What to do if varicose veins appear
After the phlebologist has diagnosed varicose veins, she selects treatment tactics taking into account the stage of the disease and the severity of clinical symptoms. Therapeutic measures can combine conservative, medicinal and surgical techniques.
As part of conservative therapy, the following is prescribed:
- dietary nutrition to improve the rheological properties of blood, strengthen the vascular wall, prevent edema, normalize digestive processes and reduce body weight (if necessary);
- wear compression garments of a certain compression type (tights, socks or tights).
Additionally, as part of a comprehensive treatment, the doctor may recommend external remedies to eliminate signs of the disease. They are available in the form of ointments, gels, creams and are divided into three large groups:
- phlebotonics (venotonics) - improve the tone of the walls of blood vessels, as a result of which the dilated veins return to their original state;
- heparin - reduces blood viscosity, reduces the risk of blood clots, increases blood flow;
- anti-inflammatory: helps eliminate inflammation and pain.
The basis of drug therapy is phlebotropic drugs. These substances improve the outflow of lymphatic fluid, blood microcirculation, reduce the permeability of vascular walls and increase their tone.
The gold standard for treating varicose veins is non-surgical methods. They make it possible to stop the progression of the pathological process, block blood flow in damaged veins, eliminate unpleasant symptoms of the disease, and also restore the aesthetics of the legs without scars and with long-term rehabilitation.
The modern phlebology center uses all modern treatment methods:
- Sclerotherapy. A modern procedure to eliminate varicose veins by injecting them with a special substance: sclerosant. With the help of this drug, the dilated vessel is "glued" and then disconnected from the general blood flow, and blood begins to circulate through healthy veins.
- Removal of veins with laser and radiofrequency. Both methods are similar; They are based on thermal damage to the venous wall, as a result of which it "seals", turns into a scar, and then resolves. The procedures are complete alternatives to classic operations and are performed under ultrasound guidance. This allows acting only on pathological lesions without damaging healthy tissue.
- In cases where surgery is necessary, the clinic performs gentle, minimally invasive operations: phlebectomy, miniphlebectomy, stripping, crossectomy. They are applicable almost always, even in difficult cases.
Very often a combined approach is used in the treatment of varicose veins. For example, large dilated veins are disconnected from the bloodstream using radiofrequency and laser treatment, and smaller superficial vessels with tributaries are disconnected using sclerotherapy. At the same time, conservative therapy is carried out.